The Stolpersteine of Brahmsallee 13: The Stories behind the Names and the Obstacles to Commemorating Them

Source Description

This photograph shows six Stolpersteine
[stumbling stones] embedded in the pavement in front of the residential
building at Brahmsallee
13 by artist Gunter Demnig on July 22,
2007. The brass plate-covered concrete cubes measuring 10 x 10 cm
remember three Jewish couples who lived at this address: Gretchen and Jona Fels from 1920 until 1935, Bruno and Irma Schragenheim from 1927 until
1936, and Moritz and Erna Bertha Bacharach from 1937
until the spring of 1939.

Demnig’s intention
in placing these stones is to embed the names of the victims of National
Socialism in the memory of people living today. He hopes they will start
various kinds of discussions, thus continuously encouraging the study and
discussion of National Socialist injustice. The first line which begins
“here lived …” shows that these six Stolpersteine were laid at the last (freely chosen) place of
residence of those named and not at their place of work (in which case the
line would read “here worked …”). Their inscription also includes the
person’s name, for women their birth name, their year of birth, and their
fate (deported in 1941), the place of death, and—if
known—the date of death. Some Stolpersteine
such as that for Moritz and Erna Bacharach also mention particular circumstances. On the
more recent stones, the artist consistently uses the term “murdered”
[ermordet] as he did on these six,
because the National Socialists intended the deaths of these individuals
whether they were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz like Erna Bacharach or Gretchen Fels or died of disease or hunger in a ghetto like
Jona Fels.

These six Stolpersteine are sponsored by the
building’s current residents (120 EUR per stone in 2016) who also ensure the continued care and maintenance of
their brass surfaces.

The Stolpersteine Campaign

In the 1990s, artist Gunter Demnig began
developing his art in public spaces project (Art of Remembrance/Street Art),
which ultimately became the Stolpersteine art
campaign of today. He laid more than 60,000 of these stones in Germany and many other
countries. Their purpose is to allow for an individualized memorializing of
National Socialist crimes in the everyday public sphere. Demnig defines his
Europe-wide
art campaign “social sculpture” or as “the world’s largest decentralized
memorial.” He relied on the participation of the local population from the very
beginning. To create the six Stolpersteine at
Brahmsallee 13, and all
the others, volunteers researched the biographies of the individuals
commemorated, regardless of whether they were deported Jews—as in these six
cases—or whether they died in a concentration camp because they were
homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, executed members of the resistance, deserters,
or forced laborers accused of sabotage, to name just a few groups of persecuted
victims. The Stolpersteine equally commemorate
those who were killed in camps, those who committed suicide, and those who died
as a consequence of persecution. Once the dates for the stone have been verified
and a sponsor has been found, local organizers obtain permission to lay the
stone on public property from the local authorities. A Stolperstein can be laid
either at a person’s last residence of choice or at their place of work. It
partly depends on whether the sponsor intends to place the stone in the
individual’s former neighborhood or outside a school for a teacher, outside a
theater for an actor or actress or outside city hall for a politician, for
example. In some cases, more than one stone has been dedicated to one person.
Erna
Bertha Bacharach, née Strauss, is now also commemorated by a
Stolperstein in her birth place of
Michelstadt,
for example. Once a Stolperstein has been laid,
it becomes public property, and thus the local municipality is responsible for
prosecuting cases of vandalism or unauthorized removal.

Stolpersteine in Hamburg

In Hamburg the
Stolpersteine art campaign was introduced
in 2002 by art collector Peter
Hess. After initial resistance by the local authorities in
particular, his idea eventually met with political approval and broad public
support. In 2016, the 5,000th Stolperstein was laid in Hamburg. More than 90%
of the city’s Stolpersteine commemorate
Jews—such as the six pictured here—followed by those laid in memory of
homosexuals, victims of “euthanasia,” and people persecuted as political
opponents. The rest are divided up among other groups. In 2006, Rita Bake of Hamburg’s
Landeszentrale für politische Bildung [Hamburg
Agency for Civic Education] and Beate Meyer of the Institute for the History of German Jews initiated the project
“Stolpersteine in Hamburg—biographische Spurensuche” [Stolpersteine in Hamburg—A Biographical
Search for Traces]. The volunteers, more than 300 people thus far, receive
instructions from academics in order to research the biographies of those
individuals for whom Stolpersteine have been
laid in their neighborhoods. At the time of writing (2016), three groups were working simultaneously; two of them are
focusing on the Grindel area, formerly Hamburg’s main Jewish
neighborhood. One of these groups produced the biographical texts on the married
couples named Fels, Schragenheim, and Bacharach published in the volume “Stolpersteine in Hamburg—Grindel
I” in 2016. Thus far, the project
managers and their team of volunteers have published a total of 17 neighborhood
specific volumes of biographies, and six more are in preparation. The roughly
3,000 life stories researched and published in those volumes so far can also be
viewed at http://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de.

About the Stolpersteine pictured here

These six Stolpersteine feature only a few basic
dates relating to the life and death of those whose names they bear. What
becomes evident at first glance is that they commemorate married couples, and
their deportation to places like Theresienstadt and Minsk as
well as the name of the Auschwitz death camp suggest that they were persecuted as Jews
without actually spelling it out. Biographical research produced further
information: Gretchen Fels, née Hildesheimer was born in Peine. She married
Hamburg
businessman
John/Jona Fels in 1905. After he
returned from the First World
War, the couple and their daughter Edith moved into an apartment on Brahmsallee 13, where they
continued to live for the next 15
years. John
Fels was the executive director and
Gretchen the general manager of the
Gerson company [Fa. Gerson], which John
Fels took over in 1934 as a
metal and chemicals broker. In 1938, John
Fels avoided having to use the mandatory name “Israel” by
changing his first name to the permitted “Jewish” name Jona. The couple had to move out of its spacious apartment for
financial reasons. An attempted emigration to Palestine to join their
daughter failed. On July 15, 1942, after having
moved several times, the couple was deported from a “Jews’ house” [Judenhaus] to the “ghetto for the aged” [Altersghetto] at Theresienstadt, where
Jona died after three months. Gretchen Fels was eventually deported to Auschwitz and murdered in the
gas chambers.

Hamburg native
Bruno
Schragenheim and his wife Irma,
née Löwenberg, lived at Brahmsallee 13 for nine
years. They did not have children, and Irma apparently did not work. While Bruno
Schragenheim, who worked as a self-employed
accountant, was adversely affected by the anti-Jewish measures,
he was able to continue working until 1938. He
subsequently worked as an accountant for Hamburg’s Jewish congregation
until he was deported on November 8, 1941. The
couple’s traces disappear after they arrived at the Minsk
ghetto. Therefore the Stolperstein reads “murdered,” but does not give a date of death.
Since there are almost no surviving documents from the Minsk ghetto, the date of death of almost all Hamburg citizens
deported to Minsk is unknown. The Bacharach couple lived in Hamburg for just under
four years. Moritz
Bacharach was from Seligenstadt. He
married Erna
Bertha Strauss from Michelstadt. The couple
first lived in Hanau, where their sons Albrecht and Walter were born, and later moved to Salzwedel. The family
only moved to Hamburg during the National Socialist period when Moritz could no longer work in his profession in rural areas.
His wife Erna Bertha Bacharach and sonsAlbrecht and Walter Bacharach
emigrated from Germany to the Netherlands in 1938, and he Moritz Bacharach followed them in 1939. The German troops caught up with them, however, and they were
taken from Hilversum to the transit camp at Westerbork. Almost two years later, on February 25, 1944, they were first sent to the
Theresienstadt
ghetto and then deported to Auschwitz on October 1, 1944,
where Erna
Bertha Bacharach was murdered. The Stolperstein does not give a date of death for them because none
was registered for the arrivals of her transport. Most likely they were murdered
either on the day of their arrival or the next day. Moritz, Albrecht, and Walter were selected for
forced labor in Auschwitz and were taken to Taucha in Saxony. There
they worked as welders in the HASAG arms factory. In April 1945,
the prisoners had to embark on a death march during which Moritz
Bacharach was shot in front of his sons, both of whom survived.
In 2007, the residents of Brahmsallee informed Walter Zwi Bacharach (died
2014), who now was a professor
of modern history at Israel’s Bar
Ilan University, of their intention to lay Stolpersteine for his parents. His reaction was reserved, and he
stated: “This is your business,” in order to point out that this form of
commemoration was initiated by the descendants of the perpetrators. However,
this aspect eventually became less important than the fact that the names of his
parents are commemorated. In 2010, he and his wife
participated in the laying of a Stolperstein
for his mother in Michelstadt, and they also visited the site of the Stolperstein on Brahmsallee several times.

(Hamburg)
controversies about the Stolperstein
campaign

While most cities and municipalities support Demnig’s campaign and the
artist has received multiple honors and awards, some—especially Munich—refuse laying
any stones because both the city’s administration and the local Jewish congregation feel that
this form of commemoration does not correspond with their idea of a dignified
memorial. They see the memory of the murdered individuals literally stepped on
and sullied by the stones’ placement in the pavement while the artist’s Gunter Demnig view is that passersby bow before the
victims when reading the stones’ inscriptions. The association of Sinti and Roma
in Hamburg
[Rom und Cinti Union Hamburg] rejects the
memorializing of murdered “gypsies” by Stolpersteine for the same reason. Stones already laid for them
had to be removed in 2009. Other critics take exception
to the Stolperstein campaign because they think
the principle of a “grassroots” commemoration in which sponsors initiate and
finance the laying of an individual stone does not guarantee that all of those
murdered are memorialized. They would prefer to establish an “official” form
which unites all names in one central memorial. The installation of stelae with
names inscribed into them is being discussed in Munich at present.
Cities like Kassel or Göttingen only approved the laying of Stolpersteine after years of controversial debate in 2013 and 2015 respectively. In
the city of Oldenburg, Stolpersteine are
being laid for those persecuted for political reasons or victims of “euthanasia”
while the city does not give permission to lay Stolpersteine for Jews out of respect for the Jewish congregation’s
rejection of the project. Instead, the city has erected a memorial wall in a
central place which contains the names of all of Oldenburg’s murdered Jews. Time
and again, individualized commemoration causes conflict with the victims’
families. This is especially the case when the murdered individuals belonged to
groups whose lifestyle or behavior deviated from societal norms and for which
their families are still ashamed or embarrassed (victims of “euthanasia,”
deserters or homosexuals, for example). Sometimes the fears relate to the
present, such as the fear that the Jewish descent of living bearers of the
family name will be revealed by a Stolperstein.
Local organizers usually are considerate of family concerns if they are known in
advance. If contact with relatives is established only after a stone has been
laid or if descendants disagree about the issue, those involved endeavor to find
an amicable solution. In 2014, inscriptions written by
the artistGunter Demnig
using National Socialist legal terms such as “Gewohnheitsverbrecherin” [habitual criminal] or “Rassenschande” [racial defilement] when listing the
reasons for persecution prompted criticism in the media, and some
historians agreed. They found that these discriminating
terms were humiliating the victims a second time and doubted that today’s public
understands that this usage is meant to point out the National Socialist’s abuse
of the justice system. Since this constitutes an irresolvable conflict between
artistic license and political correctness or pedagogical intent, there will
certainly be further debate on this and similar issues— which will hopefully
lead to greater knowledge about the period
of National Socialism.

This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Non commercial - No Derivatives 4.0 International License. As long as the work is unedited and you give appropriate credit according to the Recommended Citation, you may reuse and redistribute the material in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes.

About the Author

Beate Meyer (Thematic Focus: Memory and Remembrance), Dr. phil., is a Research Associate at the Institute for the History of the German Jews (IGdJ). Her research interests are focused on aspects of German-Jewish history, National Socialism, oral history, gender history and cultures of memory.

Recommended Citation and License Statement

Beate Meyer, The Stolpersteine of Brahmsallee 13: The Stories behind the Names and the Obstacles to Commemorating Them (translated by Insa Kummer), in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, September 22, 2016.
<https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:article-171.en.v1> [September 26, 2017].

This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Non commercial - No Derivatives 4.0 International License. As long as the work is unedited and you give appropriate credit according to the Recommended Citation, you may reuse and redistribute the material in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes.